I was watching that serie called "Dogfight" and something made me wonder... It all started with an American ace saying : "When I was a kid in Arkansas..."

The thing is, he didn't pronounce it as I thought it had to be pronounced, "ArkansASS" (like "Texas"), but rather pronounced it "ArkansAW".

My question is, was it only the accent, or do you guys realy pronounce it "ArkansAW" ? And before I sound retarded in front of any American, is there other states that aren't pronounced like they are written ?

While written AmE is standardized across the country, there are several recognizable variations in the spoken language, both in pronunciation and in vernacular vocabulary. General American is the name given to any American accent that is relatively free of noticeable regional influences.

After the Civil War, the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the Eastern U.S. led to dialect mixing and leveling, so that regional dialects are most strongly differentiated along the Eastern seaboard. The Connecticut River and Long Island Sound is usually regarded as the southern/western extent of New England speech, which has its roots in the speech of the Puritans from East Anglia who settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Potomac River generally divides a group of Northern coastal dialects from the beginning of the Coastal Southern dialect area; in between these two rivers several local variations exist, chief among them the one that prevails in and around New York City and northern New Jersey, which developed on a Dutch substratum after the British conquered New Amsterdam. The main features of Coastal Southern speech can be traced to the speech of the English from the West Country who settled in Virginia after leaving England at the time of the English Civil War, and to the African influences from the African Americans who were enslaved in the South.

Although no longer region-specific,[21] African American Vernacular English, which remains prevalent among African Americans, has a close relationship to Southern varieties of AmE and has greatly influenced everyday speech of many Americans.

A distinctive speech pattern also appears near the border between Canada and the United States, centered on the Great Lakes region (but only on the American side). This is the Inland North Dialect—the "standard Midwestern" speech that was the basis for General American in the mid-20th Century (although it has been recently modified by the northern cities vowel shift). Those not from this area frequently confuse it with the North Midland dialect treated below, referring to both collectively as "Midwestern" in the mid-Atlantic region or "Northern" in the Southern US. The so-called '"Minnesotan" dialect is also prevalent in the cultural Upper Midwest, and is characterized by influences from the German and Scandinavian settlers of the region (yah for yes/ja in German, pronounced the same way).

In the interior, the situation is very different. West of the Appalachian Mountains begins the broad zone of what is generally called "Midland" speech. This is divided into two discrete subdivisions, the North Midland that begins north of the Ohio River valley area, and the South Midland speech; sometimes the former is designated simply "Midland" and the latter is reckoned as "Highland Southern." The North Midland speech continues to expand westward until it becomes the closely related Western dialect which contains Pacific Northwest English as well as the well-known California English, although in the immediate San Francisco area some older speakers do not possess the cot-caught merger and thus retain the distinction between words such as cot and caught which reflects a historical Mid-Atlantic heritage.

The South Midland or Highland Southern dialect follows the Ohio River in a generally southwesterly direction, moves across Arkansas and Oklahoma west of the Mississippi, and peters out in West Texas. It is a version of the Midland speech that has assimilated some coastal Southern forms (outsiders often mistakenly believe South Midland speech and coastal South speech to be the same).

The island state of Hawaii has a distinctive Hawaiian Pidgin.

Finally, dialect development in the United States has been notably influenced by the distinctive speech of such important cultural centers as Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Charleston, New Orleans, and Detroit, which imposed their marks on the surrounding areas.

Staff MemberModerator

As funny as it sounds there is also a distinct difference in speech just between North and South in this here small state of New Jersey. The usual demarcation line is around Trenton and goes eastward across the state. Those in the south are influenced by Philadelphia while those in the North are influenced by New York. Hence the long drawn out vowels in the North while in the southern part of the state we tend to run words together - kinda like ole Dixie!

Staff MemberModerator

I have always pronounced it Arkansaw. Just the way it always has been for me.

It is all just different dialects though. In the mountains of N. Carolina where I used to live "Did you eat? No. Would you like to? Alright!" would be pronounced:

"Djeet? Naw. Yantoo? Aaiiight!"

Then just look at Germany where I live. There are so many different dialects it is impossible to keep up with them. I speak Schwaebisch along with my wife and her family. The area we live in speaks Frankish.